Greig Complete Game and Timely Hitting Leads Baseball to Split With Dowling
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Apr. 19, 2015) – Powered by a complete game outing on the mound from senior Bryan Greig (New City, N.Y./Clarkstown South) and RBIs from both sophomore Michael Grudzinski (Islip, N.Y./Islip) and senior Blake Hasbrouck (Middletown, N.Y./Orange CC) in game two, the Mercy College baseball team earned a doubleheader split with perennial ECC power Dowling College on Sunday afternoon at Mercy Field, earning a 4-2 win in the nightcap after dropping game one 3-1.
The Mavericks (9-23, 3-13 ECC) pick up their fifth home win of the season and first in the series with the Golden Lions, while Dowling (21-9, 10-6 ECC) has a four-game winning streak snapped with the game two loss.
Game 1: Dowling 3, Mercy 1
Game 1 saw a pitcher's duel unfold as Mercy starter junior Christian Hock (Trumbull, Conn./Franklin Pierce) put forth a solid outing, going 7 1/3 innings with two runs allowed (zero earned) on seven hits. Dowling starter Dominic Danetti would put forth a similar outing with 7 2/3 innings pitched and one earned run allowed on six hits.
Neither team could break through in the first four innings and the score remained 0-0 heading to the top of the fifth. The Golden Lions broke the tie with a pair of unearned runs on an error by the shortstop and an RBI single up the middle to make it 2-0.
The Mavericks would not be able to respond until the eighth inning when Greig doubled to left field to score Grudzinski from first to get Mercy within a run at 2-1 heading to the ninth.
Dowling added on an insurance run in the ninth on a single to center to make it 3-1 heading into the Mavericks last at bat. Senior Sal Palumbo (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) led off the bottom of the ninth with a pinch-hit single up the middle, but a 1-6-3 double play and groundout to third ended the threat and gave the Golden Lions a game one victory.
Freshman Nick Daley (Glenwood Landing, N.Y./North Shore) made the start behind the plate and went 2-for-3, while Greig finished up 1-for-4 with an RBI. Freshman Liam Slattery (Floral Park, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy), Grudzinski, Hagan and Palumbo recorded Mercy's other four hits. Despite a strong outing on the mound, Hock earned the loss and falls to 1-6 this season.
Game 2: Mercy 4, Dowling 2
Another offensive struggle broke out in the nightcap as the two teams combined for only seven hits in the seven-inning affair. The guests wasted little time in getting on the board as an RBI triple by Daniel Parisi with two outs brought home R.J. Going, who had walked in the previous at bat, to make it 1-0.
Greig would settle down and pitch two scoreless innings before the Golden Lions got their second run of the game in the fourth on a sacrifice fly to right to make it 2-0.
The Mavericks crept closer in the fifth as they played small ball, using a walk and a sac bunt to set up an RBI single to left field from Hasbrouck to bring home junior Justin Echevarria (Bronx, N.Y./Orange CC) and make it 2-1 after five innings.
Greig used the momentum from the Mercy run and put down Dowling in order in the sixth to get the Mavericks offense back at the plate.
Mercy went into its bag of tricks in the sixth innings using a suicide squeeze as Grudzinski layed down a perfect bunt to allow sophomore Bryan Gutierrez (Bronx, N.Y./In-tech Academy) to score from third on the play and tying up the game at 2-2. Following a hit by pitch and sacrifice bunt, the Mavericks had runners on second and third with two outs and Echevarria at the plate looking to take the lead. Mercy wouldn't need a hit as a Dowling wild pitch led to Slattery scoring and an ensuing error by the catcher on the play led to Hagan touching home to give the Mavericks a 4-2 lead heading to the seventh.
Greig, who has been a workhorse all season for Mercy, would pitch a scoreless seventh despite being over 100 pitches to seal the win and give the Mavericks a split with one of the top teams in the ECC.
Grudzinski went 1-for-3 in game two with an RBI and Hasbrouck ended up 1-for-2 with an RBI. Greig went the distance with two earned runs allowed on five hits with seven strikeouts to earn the win and improve to 4-3.
Head Coach Jason Lamando and the Mavericks return to action on Tuesday, April 21st as they travel to Stonehill for a doubleheader beginning at 2:00 pm.
